The Narcotics Control Bureau has moved the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay High Court order granting bail to Rhea Chakraborty in cases registered against her under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS Act). A bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and comprising Justices A.S. Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanian is likely to hear the matter on March 18. The High Court granted bail to Rhea in October last year after furnishing a bond of Rs one Lakh. She was among the 20 arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in connection with the drugs angle probe into the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput. She had spent 28 days in custody.
Rhea's counsel had contended that the NCB lacked jurisdiction to probe the matter in view of the Supreme Court order of August 19 directing to hand over all investigations in the Sushant case to the CBI, the offences under which the accused were nabbed by the NCB were bailable and the charges under the NDPS Act Section 217A against the accused did not have supporting evidence.
Rhea and her brother Showik Chakraborty and three others -- Abdel Basit Parihar, Samuel Miranda and Dipesh Sawant -- were accused of having facilitated the procurement of drugs for consumption by late actor Sushant Singh Rajput. They filed bail applications before the Bombay High Court after their bail plea was dismissed by a Special NDPS Court in Mumbai.
Among the conditions listed for Rhea's bail was depositing her passport with the NCB, reporting to the local police station daily for 10 days, not leaving Mumbai without informing the NCB, etc.
"The arrest and custody of Rhea was totally unwarranted and beyond the reach of law. The hounding and witch hunt by three Central agencies -- the CBI, ED and NCB of Rhea should come to an end", Rhea's counsel had said then.
